December 13, 2005

Korean Box Office Report - December 9/11

(Posted In Asia Box Office )

potterbox.jpgNothing new this week on the Korean front, as Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire continued to enjoy its stay at the top of this weekend's box office. Repeating last week's performance, the latest installment in the Harry Potter saga sold 249,000 tickets in Seoul, which is 120,000 less than last week, but still an excellent result. With 486 nationwide screens, the film has reached the 2.4 Million tickets sold, which should easily make this the most successful of all the Harry Potter films released in Korea. But 광식이 동생 광태 (When Romance Meets Destiny) continues to perform incredibly well, unexpectedly reaching the 2 Million tickets sold, and still continuing to get good reviews from critics and viewers. The romantic comedy, starring Kim Joo-Hyeok, Bong Tae-Gyu and popular TV star Kim Ah-Joong, sold 95,000 tickets in Seoul this weekend, rounding up its total to 2.1 Million. What's interesting is that while 'Harry Potter' is attracting a lot of kids (predictably), teenagers and young couples are supporting the Korean film in droves. Another big success for domestic romance films, after 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) and 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) this Fall.

Uma Thurman's latest film Prime ranked third, a pretty decent debut, with 46,000 tickets in Seoul, and a total first weekend of over 150,000. Looks like good word of mouth will continue to keep the film in the Top 10 for a while, just like another recent hit -- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which didn't make spectacular money, but has one of the highest per-screen ratio in the entire country. No big change in the other mid-to-high places: the thriller 6월의 일기 (Bystanders) did OK this week, with 41,000 tickets in Seoul, adding to a total score of almost 600,000 tickets. Although the Million is still far off and highly unlikely, given what's debuting next week, the film should stay in the Top 10 for another couple of weeks.

나의 결혼 원정기 (Wedding Campaign) continues to hold its place, getting closer to the 750,000 mark. Not really a hit, but with extremely good reviews and word of mouth spreading, distributors could push the film until it reaches the Million tickets. As for the other two Korean films on release, between the controversy surrounding Sung Hyun-Ah's 애인 (The Intimate) and the lukewarm reaction 연애 (Love is a Crazy Thing), neither was able to make much noise.

Next week the fight between giants will finally begin: Kwak Kyung-Taek's 태풍 (Typhoon) and Peter Jackson's King Kong will stroll to the big stage and try to kill each other. Judging from previews and reviews, it looks like King Kong will have to fight a dinosaur here as well. But Korean viewers don't seem to care about reviews painting the film as a sledgehammer drama focusing too much on the action, as pre-order sales show. Preliminary online sales put 'Typhoon' at around 70% against 'King Kong's 20%, which is more or less what Harry Potter averaged on its first week -- resulting in 1.2 Million tickets sold. What's for sure is just about everyone else not called 'Harry Potter' will have to do with what's left, which is not much. In fact, there's no major new release planned other than the two giants, and only a couple of arthouse films are receiving limited releases.

Korean Films Abroad

Pretty quiet weekend for Korean films abroad. Sung Hyun-Ah's Summer horror flick 첼로 (Cello) continues to do well in Malaysia, landing fifth. As for 마파도 (Mapado: Island of Fortunes) and its Hong Kong box office performance, the comedy has made HK$ 2.3 Million, landing 8th this weekend. The musical 如果．愛 (Perhaps Love), which amongst others stars Ji Jin-Hee of 대장금 (Dae Jang Geum: Jewel in the Palace), had a really strong opening, making HK$ 5.1 Million, while 殺破狼 (Sha Po Lang) is getting closer to the 10 Million mark, making HK$ 7.24 Million so far.

Last but not least, Lee Jae-Han's melodrama 내 머리속의 지우개 (A Moment To Remember) was in the Japanese Top 10 for the 8th consecutive week. Distributors GAGA announced the film reached the 2 Million viewers mark last December 2, and so far made an impressive 2.75 Billion Yen, getting closer to their 3 Billion estimate. The film, starring Son Ye-Jin and Jung Woo-Sung, recently became the most successful Korean film of all time in Japan, beating 외출 (April Snow)'s previous record of 2.72 Billion Yen. 'A Moment To Remember' is still enjoying a 200 screen release, so it's quite likely it'll continue to stay in the Top 10 for a while.

Box Office Top 10 - Weekend of December 9~11 (Seoul)

01. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
UK/USA (distrib. Warner Brothers Korea) - 48.9% - 2,414,065

02. 광식이 동생 광태 (When Romance Meets Destiny)
KOREA (distrib. MK Pictures) - 17.9% - 2,118,449

03. Prime
USA (distrib. Tube Entertainment) - 8.4% - 160,550

04. 6월의 일기 (Bystanders)
KOREA (distrib. Showbox) - 8.1% - 595,046

05. Just Like Heaven
USA (distrib. CJ Entertainment) - 5.3% - 258,000

06. 나의 결혼원정기 (Wedding Campaign)
KOREA (distrib. Lotte Entertainment) - 4.0% - 741,964

07. 애인 (The Intimate)
KOREA (distrib. Showbox) - 3.4% - 84,667

08. The Brothers Grimm
USA (distrib. Show East) - 0.7%

09. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
USA (distrib. Korea Pictures) - 0.6%

10. 연애 (Love is a Crazy Thing)
KOREA (distrib. CJ Entertainment) - 0.5% - 11,400

xx. 무영검 (Shadowless Sword)
KOREA (distrib. CJ Entertainment) - 560,000

xx. 미스터 소크라테스 (Mr. Socrates)
KOREA (distrib. Lotte Entertainment) - 1,255,768


2005 Box Office Top 10 (Korean Films)

01. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 8,002,594
02. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,663,000
03. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154
04. 공공의 적 2 (Another Public Enemy) - 3,910,000
05. 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) - 3,560,000
06. 너는 내 운명 (You Are My Sunshine) - 3,070,000
07. 마파도 (Mapado) - 3,020,000
08. 내 생애 가장 아름다운 일주일 (All For Love) - 2,545,000
09. 박수칠 때 떠나라 (Murder, Take One) - 2,480,000
10. 혈의 누 (Blood Rain) - 2,274,779


All Time Box Office Top 10 (Korean Films)

01. 태극기 휘날리며 (Taegukgi) - 11,746,135 [2004]
02. 실미도 (Silmido) - 11,074,000 [2003]
03. 친구 (Friend) - 8,180,000 [2001]
04. 웰컴 투 동막골 (Welcome To Dongmakgol) - 8,002,594 [2005]
05. 쉬리 (Shiri) - 6,210,000 [1999]
06. 공동경비구역 JSA (Joint Security Area) - 5,830,000 [2000]
07. 가문의 위기 (Marrying The Mafia 2) - 5,663,000 [2005]
08. 조폭 마누라 (My Wife is a Gangster) - 5,250,000 [2001]
09. 가문의 영광 (Marrying the Mafia) - 5,200,001 [2002]
10. 말아톤 (Marathon) - 5,179,154 [2005]

Via Star News 1, Star News 2, nKino, MyDaily, Yonhap News, Chosun Ilbo, Goo Japan, Mov3 and Yahoo Malaysia

» Posted by X at December 13, 2005 05:34 AM
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Reader Comments

i was thinking recently what the top films of the year, and historically were for korea. wonder then if theres some insight you can share over just why DVD doesnt sell well there. is there a culture of cinema going but not home viewing? dont they like the format? price? ... i read some talk of trouble in that area recently, just wondering what your views are, or your insight is?...

» Posted by logboy at December 14, 2005 03:41 AM

the 'talk in trouble' is exaggerated, although the industry is certainly in a period of crisis, for several reasons (bad quality control resulting in last year's 'rot' problem, a few hypocritical companies ruining the name of the whole industry, and the usual fatalism of Korean DVD Manias, who throw a fit for seemingly the silliest things) and taken a little out of context, since that Film2.0 feature(s) also showed what the companies are doing to solve the problem (rental versions going out before sell-through, alternative promotion, etc.), and there's a lot of hope and 'never say die' attitude shown by DVD industry people, with most saying they'll fight until the end, even if they have to release barebones DVDs.

Why DVDs doesn't sell. Well, hard to explain. It's a balance of coming at the wrong place AND wrong time, mostly. Korea is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world (hell, if Korea was Seoul only, there'd be few countries competing with them when it comes to IT. Just all that WiBro madness makes me envious), Internet is ridiculously fast, and the youngsters there haven't been educated to appreciate art the way their parents or even older brothers/sisters do.

DVD is facing the same problem of Music CDs, which went down from Top hits selling 2-3 Million copies, to only a few artists (Kim Gun-Mo, Seo Taiji, Jaurim/Kim Yoon-Ah and a few others) selling around the mid 6 figures. Yeah, it's a crazy, but kids don't care about buying, since they can download anything they want in a blink of an eye. VHS always worked because it was pushed by Chaebols in the 90s, even limiting certain films' theatrical run, because they were made cheaply to sell a few tapes (which were produced by the Chaebol just like the films, so you can connect the dots). Funny thing is VHS 'grew up' when the industry was down, and as Chungmuro got back on its feet, VHS sales started going down.

So you could say DVD doesn't do well because it was caught in a sort of vacuum and was never able to be established. Plus there's DVD Rooms (which are becoming the new Love Hotels. They're cheaper, often cleaner than love hotels, and tons of young couples go there to... ahem... 'watch a film'. You know? So it's not like the mainstream has a big incentive to buy DVDs: they love going to theaters, they can get those films on satellite or cable (with quality almost comparable to DVD. Korea's not up to Japan's standards when it comes to HDTV, but they're close), or just leech that off the net.

But I wouldn't worry too much. The 'problem' is Hollywood companies who don't see enough profit and are starting to pull the plug on some releases, and downsize some others. Local production is extremely low budget (the Arahan DVD was produced for around 30 grands), so the Mania fanbase can sustain more or less those productions, and Korean films on DVD will never be much of a problem. Hell, there's films which barely made a blip in the box office getting 2 Disc Limited Edition releases (Windmill Palm Grove). IS that a sign of collapse? Puhhlease.

» Posted by x at December 14, 2005 05:50 AM

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